“Well it’s won for the money, two for the show…”
Jitsuwa Taiho (January) reports that just as the exchange differential between the South Korean won and Japanese yen is helping appliance makers like Samsung and LG to drastically undersell Sony, Sharp and other Japanese competitors, this has also spurred opportunities for Korean females to penetrate Japan for the purpose of partaking in the oldest profession.
“Recently there was a police bust in the red-light area adjacent to the east exit of Kawasaki station,” says a reporter who’s knowledgeable about such things. “About 20 foreign women were found working there, nearly all of them from South Korea. The main reason they’re working here is that they’re drawn by the exchange rate, but one more thing that can’t be overlooked is that there’s been a major police crackdown on prostitution in Korea.”
So annoyed at police harassment are Seoul’s sex workers, they even organized a big demonstration; but Korean authorities seem more determined than ever to stamp out the world’s oldest profession.
Left with no other choice, and sensing opportunities for lucrative business thanks to the inflated value of the Japanese Yen, ladies from the Land of the Morning Clam, er sorry, Calm, have been converging on Japan, using short-term tourist visas to sell short-time services.
“If you phone to a Korean deri heru (out-call sex service), the girls they send are all fresh and new. There’s a fast turnover because they don’t stay long — but the customers are delighted with that situation,” says the aforementioned writer.
“These days it’s rare to find Japanese women who would go abroad to sell spring just because they’re hard up for money, but Koreans are more willing. They’re doing it in Australia as well,” he says, adding hearsay that some 1,000 Korean hookers are working in Oz, and as many as 30,000 in the U.S.
While most of the foreign women engaged in tachimpo (streetwalking) in Japan have been from China, with the declining Won and soaring Yen, that situation might also be changing soon.
While cheaper prices are likely to please the purveyors of imported prostitutes, it might put a damper on demand for domestic damsels, the magazine warns.
Source: “Uon-yasu de Kankoku fuuzokujo ga Nihon manee wo neratteru!” Jitsuwa Taiho (January, page 164)